DOOR 2 DOOR

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What’s that old maxim, ‘Build a drag strip and your drought will be over’? Well, how about this? You’re in Doha, Qatar, for the final of the 2017 Arabian Drag Racing League (ADRL), and it rains — against all odds, with no clouds on the weather radar, in a desert, outside the rainy season, in one of the hottest countries of the world, at the final round of a tightly contested drag racing season. To put that into context, the average rainfall in the desert of Qatar is approximately 8cm annually. Get your ruler out and have a look at 8cm — yip, that’s for the whole year. Well, early in February, with clear skies showing on weather-prediction websites, down came that miraculous precipitation. Act of God, maybe, or maybe just the result of that old adage I just quoted about the element that promoters worldwide dread and treat as the enemy of their drag racing endeavours? So, what do you do in this situation? Mere mortals would pack up and go home — not the hard-core of Qatar’s Racing Club, though. Led by Scott Valetti and David Cook, they knuckled down and got the brooms and sweeper out. The drenching was enough to send spectators scuttling, but, three hours later — and well into the evening — the surface was back to perfection and battles recommenced in earnest. All over planet Earth, the world of drag racing had been waiting expectantly in front of live feeds to see a down-and-dirty contest. Hard-core blown Hemis; monster turbo-boosted pro mods; the heaviest of nitrous-snorting, 900-, tower-block doorslammers: all were there to do battle. It was that combination of racing that attracted us back to the Gulf after a two-year break. The difference this time was that the Middle East’s various drag racing leagues have now combined into a regional championship, and the biggest hitters on our planet were meeting for the first time under united rules in a power-adder shootout to end all shootouts. This series had America’s Frank ‘Ace’ Manzo tuning Al-Anabi’s blown Hemi-powered ’69 Camaro, Pat Musi calling the shots on both his daughter’s and Mahana ‘El Chapo’ Al-Naemi’s nitrous-snorting 960-cube cars, and Shane Tecklenberg and Josh Ledford making adjustments to the EKanoo-financed turbo Pro-line–powered Lexus from Bahrain. Now, if you have been following the extreme edge of Doorslammer racing around the planet, you should be aware that the aforementioned are at the pinnacle of their respective games when it comes to luring gobs of go from American power plants. Manzo has won so many awards, races, titles, and championships that he has very few challenges left to achieve. Musi is a household name in the nitrous big-cube world, and control of wholesale overboost — where money is no object — lays squarely with the best in the laptop turbo-tuning business. Most readers will recognize Shane Tecklenberg’s

name from his connections to the Keith, Kevin, and Reece McGregor camp in New Zealand, but the name Ledford isn’t as well known down under — suffice it to say that you couldn’t just call him up on the off-chance he would be available to throw maps at your combo. This man is a wait-in-line tuner, and he will decide if you have the wherewithal to go places. So, with these credentials in mind, the ADRL series ran over six rounds in Bahrain and Qatar, and set the nitrousversus-blower-versus-turbo world on its path to extreme destiny. Now, before we go any further, close your eyes and choose the power adder of your choice and lock it in. Are you a blower, nitrous, or turbo fan? Write it down to confirm your choice — maybe even shoot down to your local tattooist before reading further. Yes, we all have our favourite and, yes, not too many of us deviate from our chosen form of adding volatile compression. With five rounds under their belts — one meet was hit with a sandstorm, so, in reality, it was four — the ADRL went into its final with lots of data and internet chatter about who was achieving what. The Bahrain rounds had seen a plethora of US, English, and European stars fly in to guestdrive local cars, but, when it came to the Qatar event, most had headed home for their northernhemisphere season openers.

Stevie ‘Fast’ Jackson was back in the States for the much-anticipated debut of his new car at Donald Long’s Lights Out, Mattias Wulcan had retreated to Sweden to ready his new car for Professional Drag Racing Association duty and World’s Fastest Street Car contention, and Andy Frost from England had hurt his Vauxhall’s engine beyond repair — so Qatar was left with a semi-depleted field in the Pro Mod ranks — although ‘depleted’ is a harsh term in reality, as those who fronted in Doha were still the cream of Doorslammer racing. Back to the various power adders. We all know that turbo cars traditionally get off the line slower but then come on strong at the top end. We all also know there isn’t much that can take it to boosted cars on a quarter-mile. Well, in Qatar, Pro Mod is contested over the eighth-mile — not that the track, with its 4000-foot length, isn’t up to a full charge; that is just the traditional Middle East distance and also the levelling factor in Pro Mod at present. EKanoo driver Khalid Mohammed had set the internet and YouTube alight over the preceding weeks by running deep into the quarter-mile fives and ending at 5.44s and 273mph in legal trim for Pro Boost. Those numbers put the Bahrain team squarely top of the world over drag racing’s traditional full-distance track. As qualifying began at Qatar, it was clear that the 3.80s that had won races two years ago would not be enough this year. Almost all the hitters had 3.60s printed on their timeslips after the first round. However, it was the incrementals that showed the story. Turbo cars left slowly — comparatively — and charged out the back door. The nitrous cars were electric out of the hole but had faded by the eighth, and the blower car — yes, there was just one — steamed down the track with similar 3.60s and a slightly better top speed through the traps. It certainly was going to be a wait-and-see for who came out on top. There was no way of knowing who had the big gun, as they all had similar times, just achieved differently throughout the incremental eighth-mile. Reaction was certainly going to play a very big part in the results of every race. If you didn’t have a zero as the first digit of your tree reading — sorry, you were going on the trailer. It was El Chapo in the Speedtech / Al-Anabi Camaro who came out top in qualifying. With Musi tuning the car this year instead of Shannon Jenkins, Mahana Al-Naemi pushed to a nitrous-assisted world best of 3.643 at 204.82mph. The EKanoo Lexus followed him closely, with a 3.681 at a whopping 219.22mph. Remember, this is the eighth-mile distance they are running. Most Kiwi doorslammer pilots would be happy with that performance [mph] over the quarter-mile. This year, fields for the pro mods were slightly down on previous events. As the seven pro mods entered headed to the staging lanes for battle, the Speedtech Camaro scored a bye to run a bracketlike 3.68 at 202.97, then the EKanoo car beat out Kuwait’s red-lighting Bader Korshid with a lazy(!) 3.73 at a whopping 217.25, while Lizzy Musi outmanoeuvred the ’70 Camaro of Hussain Halal with a very sharp reaction combined with a 3.72 at 202.03. The final pairing of the first round saw Moe Atat driving Al-Anabi’s lone Roots-blown

THOSE WHO FRONTED IN DOHA WERE STILL THE CREAM OF DOORSLAMMER RACING

combo against another red-lighting privateer. Atat was off the throttle early after seeing a cherry in the tree in the far lane. Round two brought the guns out again, with all the privateers gone. It was pretty obvious that nerves were setting in as Khalid Mohammed in the turbo Lexus won after El Chapo red-lit his chances away, and then Lizzy Musi did the same, leaving a foul while wasting a 3.69 to hand Moe Atat his ticket to the final. So there we have it. The turbo-versus-nitrousversus-blower war had done the rounds, and it was now down to Manzo to tune Al-Anabi Performance’s (AAP) supercharged Roots combo against the Ledford/Tecklenberg–boosted Lexus. In the previous rounds, had been very evident that instant horsepower from Atat’s Hemi would give him a solid two- to three-car advantage off the line. But the monster speed from EKanoo’s car generally hauled that gap in towards the 200m stripe. It certainly was anyone’s race, and the win would be a shot heard around the world. It wasn’t to be, unfortunately. After round on round of consistently straight passes, it all came undone for EKanoo’s Lexus in the final. Out past the tree, the car stepped left and the race was over 3.75s later as Moe Atat did it for the blower brigade. On paper, the EKanoo car had the power to charge down all comers. In this case, that didn’t happen. An idling 5.44 through the traps handed the win to

Ace Manzo’s ecstatic team, who honestly couldn’t believe their luck. The index heads-up class for retired top-tier cars was another spectacle of reactions and almost dead-on 4.50 times — equal to a sevensecond quarter-mile. Salem Al-Tamimi’s Willys beat Jaber Al Maghrib’s Corvette in the final. A 4.53 and slightly slower reaction just edged out a 4.54 for the win. Outlaw 10.5 is certainly the growth factor in Qatar and surrounds. On these relatively small tyres, massive power plants and lots of traction control are used to get the cars down the track. A serious mishmash of combinations makes the class great to watch. Everything from a 560-cube turbo billet V6 to funny car blown Hemis and 700ci big cube Chevs are tearing slicks inside out in an attempt to win. In the end, Moe Atat managed his second trophy of the night in the AAP twin–98mm turbo V6 Corvette. A 4.22 at 142mph was enough to win. However, earlier in the evening, Moe had set the world on fire with a best-ever 3.853 at 201.04mph — remember, that equates to a quarter-mile six on tyres just slightly larger than those run on your street car. The other crazy bracket for heads-up ‘run what ya brung’ is Super Street V8 class. Pretty much everything with doors and big doses of power in a back-half chassis drops into this field. Performances are heading towards bottom fours in the eighth — 6.60 quarters — so you can imagine how exciting the racing is. It was Kuwait’s Talal Bin Eidan who went on to win, having clocked bests of 4.34 at 185mph on the way. With the combined ADRL in its infancy this year, it certainly bodes well for the future of Gulf competition. Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and other emirates in the Middle East have joined Qatar in creating a great series. Once more Americans, Europeans, Aussies, and maybe even Kiwis over the January–February months, turn up in the future, you can expect to witness a true Pro Mod world championship — either that, or the rains will help turn Qatar into a tropical paradise.

THAT EQUATES TO A QUARTER-MILE SIX ON TYRES JUST SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN THOSE RUN ON YOUR STREET CAR